Saturday, November 08, 2008

The new James Bond film, Quantum of Solace, was released here in Korea last week - almost two weeks before it's release in North American. I assume this has to do with Asia's rampant movie pirating, and releasing it here first might cut down on this. What that means is that I am able to review the 22 Bond film before people have seen it back home!

Having seen Quantum of Solace, I really enjoyed it. The action is intense and exciting, while the story (which sometimes stumbles in Bond flicks) is quite solid and topical. The film enters new territory with some artistically shot sequences and by delving far into Bond's reaction to the events at the end of Casino Royal. (Highlight for spoilers: The woman Bond loves, Vesper, betrays him and kills herself.)

Of coarse, Casino Royal, the first film in the "reboot" of the Bond film franchise, should be seen first as Quantum is a direct sequel - where Bond does whatever it takes to capture the shadowy Organization responsible for his pain. In traditional Bond style, he globe-hops across Italy, Spain, Bolivia and Haiti. Here he meets up with Camille, a beautiful and feisty Bond Girl with her own plans for revenge.

Daniel Craig is back as 007 and he seems more comfortable in the role. How would I rank him among the past Bonds? I would place him after Sean Connery and Pierce Brosnan, then Roger Moore, Dalton and Lazenby. Not to shabby.

There are a few interesting artistic moments in the film which I attribute to the director, Mark Forster. His credits include Monster's Ball (starring Halle Berry, who won an academy award!), Finding Neverland (Johnny Depp) and Stranger than Fiction (Will Farrell and Dustin Hoffman). Not you're usual action films! What Forester brings to his shots is a sense of style. I fully approve.

Besides some unconnected action sequences, Quantum of Solace is a solid and thrilling entry into the James Bond series. Check it out and tell me if you think it's as good as Casino Royal!

I'm really looking forward to Quantum. I was a HUGE fan of Casino Royale, so I'm excited to see where it picks up. I think Daniel Craig is actually a BETTER Bond than Connery (shock and awe!) because of his demeanor and, honestly, the fact that Bond was never meant to be Scottish.

it will be easy to make Quantum of Solace spoofs... every where this Bond goes he breaks glass, he can't get a gallon of milk from the store without it turning into a chase scene, and every time he punches someone in the face, they die

Raptor: Le Chiefre takes bad guy's money and invests it something to fail (in this case, the new airplane). Then he arranges a terrorist attack, destroying the plane and making him a LOT more money. But in Casino Royal, Bond stops the terrorist attack. Loosing Le Chiefre millions of the bad guy's money, who then wants to kill him. So Le Chiefre sets up a poker game to win back the bad guy's money.

Meanwhile, Vesper dated a guy (who was bad and worked for this mysterious Organization) who made her steal all the money from the poker game. Bond fell in love with her, and maybe she him. But she betrayed him and killed herself.

So Bond is angry and wants revenge on a) Vesper's boyfriend and b) the evil Organization. So he traced her cell phone to Mr. White, who he captured and begins to interrogate at the beginning of Quantum of Solace. Awesome.

Zach: The film is great, go see it. But what is this blasphemy about Connery?

Media Boy: There WAS a lot of collateral damage in the film, wasn't there? Who pays for that anyway?

Just saw it yesterday, and wasn't impressed. The action sequences were too quick-shot and just felt too unnecessary:

Car chase! On-foot chase! Boat chase! Plane chase! Explosions!!!

There were a few great moments, like Bond spying on those guys in the opera house, and Mathis' big finale, but overall I felt like this Bond lacked focus. Maybe it's a settup for a threequel, but I like Casino Royale a lot more.

I personally loved Casino Royale (CR). Daniel Craig turns James Bond into a much more believable character. Someone that might actually really exsist. So I have been very excited to see Quantum of Solace and was quite disappointed. As someone stated earlier,the action scenes were too fast and repetitive. I liked the beginning of CR much better. It started to get interesting when Bond was spying on the bad guys in the opera. But then it was lost again. Great actors and great acting, but the shot and plot was only ok. Still, I think Daniel Craig is for me after Sean Connery the best Bond.